November 19

Friday 19, 2004:

The largest brawl in the history of American professional sports breaks out between fans and NBA players during a game between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers. The melee is instigated after an altercation between Detroit's Ben Wallace and Indiana's Ron Artest when a fan throws a cup of beer and hits Artest in the chest.

Friday 19, 1999:

In Istanbul, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ends a two-day summit by calling for a political settlement in Chechnya and adopting a Charter for European Security.

Thursday 19, 1998:

1998 - Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of the Artist Without Beard" sells at auction for US$71.5 million.

Wednesday 19, 1997:

In Carlisle, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all seven babies were born alive.

Saturday 19, 1994:

In Britain, the first National Lottery draw was held. A £1 ticket gives a one-in-14-million chance of correctly guessing the winning six out of 49 numbers.

Monday 19, 1990:

Pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the “Girl You Know It’s True” album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals.

Tuesday 19, 1985:

Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion verdict against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in U.S. history, stemming from Texaco establishing a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty.)

Monday 19, 1984:

A series of explosions at the PEMEX petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City ignites a major fire and kills about 500 people.

Monday 19, 1979:

Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran.

Saturday 19, 1977:

Transportes Aereos Portugueses Boeing 727 crashes in Madeira islands killing 130

Monday 19, 1973:

American football player Lance Rentzel is arrested for exposing himself to a ten-year-old girl; he is later sentenced to five years' probation.

Wednesday 19, 1969:

Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.

Sunday 19, 1967:

The Establishment of TVB, the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong.

Sunday 19, 1961:

Michael Rockefeller, son of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, disappears in the jungles near Atsj, Papua New Guinea.

Thursday 19, 1959:

Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel.

Friday 19, 1954:

Sammy Davis, Jr. loses his left eye in an automobile accident in San Bernardino, California.

Tuesday 19, 1946:

Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.

Sunday 19, 1944:

World War II: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.

Thursday 19, 1942:

Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.

Wednesday 19, 1941:

World War II: The Royal Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sink each other off the coast of Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and about 77 German seamen.

Wednesday 19, 1924:

In Los Angeles, California, famous silent film director Thomas Ince ("The Father of the Western") dies of a heart attack in his bed (rumors soon surface that he was shot dead by publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst.)

Sunday 19, 1916:

Samuel Goldfish (later renamed Samuel Goldwyn) and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Company (the company later became one of the most successful independent filmmakers.)

Saturday 19, 1881:

A meteorite lands near the village of Großliebenthal, southwest of Odessa, Ukraine.

Thursday 19, 1863:

American Civil War: Union President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Tuesday 19, 1816:

Warsaw University is established.

Wednesday 19, 1794:

The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign Jay's Treaty, which attempts to clear up some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War.

Thursday 19, 1598:

An outnumbered Korean and Ming navy ambush and defeat a Japanese army at the Battle of Noryang Point.

Sunday 19, 1493:

Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to go ashore on an island he only saw for the first time the day before. He names it San Juan Bautista (later renamed Puerto Rico).

Saturday 19, 461:

St. Hilarius becomes Pope.

More on November, 19

• People Born on November, 19
• They left us on November, 19